Abstract

Objective: To describe the actual knowledge of compliance to vitamin K anticoagulation therapy in out-patients with cardiovascular disease and to assess changes before and after patient educational intervention in 2020.

Method: The one group pre-test and post-test educational intervention was conducted among 102 out-patients with cardiovascular disease undergoing vitamin K anticoagulation therapy. The Donald scale to measure medication adherence was used to assess the knowledge before and after the educational intervention.

Results: Before the health educational intervention, the participated patients’ knowledge of compliance to vitamin K anticoagulation therapy was limited with the mean score of only 3.84 ± 1.98 points of the 8 point-scale, then increased to 7.56 ± 0.82 points right after the intervention and remained at 7.09 ± 1.09 points one month later, the difference in scores after and before the intervention were statistically significant with p values of 0.01. The percentages of patients with the knowledge of “Poor”, “Average” and “Good” levels were 23.5%, 51.0% and 25.5% before the intervention. Immediately after the intervention and 1 month after the intervention, the percentage of patients with the good level of knowledge increased to 95.1% and 86.3%, respectively and no patient with the poor level of knowledge right after and one month later the intervention.

Conclusion: The knowledge of cardiovascular disease patients’ adherence to vitamin K anticoagulant therapy within the study was limited then improved significantly after the educational intervention